Labor Law
Labor or employment laws attempt to level the bargaining power of employers and employees. The two major categories of labor law have to do, respectively, with the rights of individual employees and those of workers’ organizations or trade unions. Some countries, such as Canada, distinguish between labor laws related to unions and those having to do with individual employees.The Scope of U.S. Labor Laws
Labor law is established and governed by both the federal and state governments and judicial decisions. The United States offers fairly limited workers’ and trade union legal rights as compared with most Western European nations. Some totalitarian regimes ban the formation of trade unions entirely. U.S. labor laws do allow employees to unionize, and for those unions to then participate in a predetermined and regulated set of actions in promulgating and addressing their needs.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 regulates most employers and employees participating in business that affect interstate commerce. It works to manage employer/employee bargaining and union/employer relationships on a national level. Individual states have the power to regulate employer/employee relationships of those employers and employees not covered by the NLRA.
Striking is legal under various conditions that vary from one jurisdiction to another. Certain categories of workers, like airport and health personnel, police, and firemen, can be forbidden to strike. General strikes can be prohibited in order to maintain public order. Sympathy strikes are sometimes prohibited.
Picketing, or congregating outside the business to hold a strike, allows workers to make their presence known, encourages an increase in worker participation in the strike, and can discourage strike breakers from entering the business to work.
Both the United States and Britain have minimum wage laws that stipulate a worker's minimum hourly wage. The established hourly rates can be so low, however, that even full-time workers can’t sufficiently survive on their wages. As such, many U.S. cities have established “living wages,” but even those sometimes inadequately account for the rising cost of housing in many metropolitan areas.
Standard Workdays
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, typical workdays lasted between eleven and fourteen hours. With the onset of the Revolution and the growth of capitalism, hours frequently increased to 14 to 16 hours daily for each employee. Child labor, especially in factories, was also not uncommon. England passed the first law limiting the length of the workday in 1833, setting it at twelve hours daily for miners and eight for children. The ten-hour workday was established in 1848. Soon thereafter, even shorter hours with the same base pay were put into effect. Germany was the first country after England to pass labor laws. The United States established the eight-hour workday in 1912. The maximum standard work week was limited to forty-four hours in 1938 by the Wages and Hours Act. It was reduced to forty hours in 1950.
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